Tonight my three seven-week old Scottie puppies have decided to WAKE UP at 9 pm. I would post pictures but they won’t pose 🙁 Maybe tomorrow.
Lot of interesting stuff this week. I’ll start with Robert Scoble’s post about bloggers clearly posting their contact details. While I draw the line at birthdate (TMI), I agree that site owners should publish contact information, whether blog, LiveJournal or Web site. If you are worried about spam, there are enough email services (gmail, hotmail, yahoo etc) that you don’t have to expose your main email address.
I ran into this problem a lot in the last week as I started fan outreach for the HP Charity Auction. I have very specific rules about how this outreach is done: individually, and only to fansites or blogs that have recently been updated. We want to be sure that hearing about the auction truly is of interest to the site owner and readers. We also NEVER post directly to forums or bulletin boards. Which makes finding a valid email address or contact link really important. For the most part, this is pretty easy. But in some cases, I have to walk away from a site that probably would really like to know that a certain star’s photo is part of the auction because I just can’t find an email address. And that’s a shame.
The lesson for marketers? Make sure your prospects can easily find an email address on your site or blog. It’s probably the most important thing on your site.
Moving on. Fred Wilson on Web. 2.0 is an oxymoron. Fred, as he so often does, has it dead to rights. Calling “it” Web 2.0 implies something static (and something that can be hyped, yuck). The reality is, this “stuff” is constantly evolving. Labels just don’t work. Let’s move on.
Speaking of labels, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the latest “a-list” dust-up. You wanna know more – read Media Orchard, Naked Conversations and Beyond Madison Avenue. I am personally pretty much done with the topic. Not on it. Don’t care.
In the practical tips category, both Blog Business World and ProBlogger talked about Andy Wibbels’ blog editorial calendar. I haven’t used this particular tool, but I am a strong believer in an editorial calendar for business blogs, and most particularly group blogs. You have an objective for the effort, otherwise you wouldn’t be doing it. An editorial calendar ensures that the important topics are covered. Not as big a deal with an individual blog but I find that I follow something like a calendar anyway. In any given week, at least one post is a round-up (like this one), one is original content and the third (on a good week) is a toss-up between the two. Or I post a picture of the dogs or the kid 🙂
If you don’t already read Jay Rosen’s PressThink, you should check out this post Guest Writer Andrew Postman: Introduction to the 20th Anniversary Edition of Amusing Ourselves to Death by His Dad, Neil Postman. There is an absolutely wonderful “easter egg” in Jay’s post. (Hint: click on Andrew Postman’s name – it’s not a link to his bio). And no cheating – I’m not going to put the link here – you have to go to the original. It’s that good. And not just for the “easter egg” – read the whole thing. It will make you think.
Speaking of thinking, a blog I am enjoying (and I don’t even remember where I got the first link to it) Dave Rogers’ Groundhog Day. One recent post: Competing Messages: Getting Your Cluetrain™ Ticket Punched. He concludes the post:
“As always, I’m an authority on nothing. I make all this shit up. Do your own thinking”
Yup. That’s a philosophy I can get behind 🙂
Tags: Blogs, Blogging, Marketing, Web Marketing, Sundance